Tony White details Colorado win, Northern Iowa rushing attack and big backs

Nebraska defensive coordinator Tony White met with the media on Tuesday inside Hawks Championship Center in Lincoln.

White’s defense shut down the high-flying Colorado offense, holding the Buffaloes to 260 total yards — 244 passing and 22 rushing. The Blackshirts’ defensive front dominated Colorado’s offensive line all night and recorded 10 tackles for loss and six sacks.

Here are the highlights of White’s time at the podium:

After Saturday’s win, true freshman quarterback Dylan Raiola said he believes his defense is the best in the country. On Tuesday, White was asked what he thought of that comment from the starting quarterback.

“It’s Tuesday,” the DC said.

White was close to being a head coach in December and January. He’ll no doubt be courted once again this upcoming offseason, especially if his unit continues to look like one of the best not only in the Big Ten, but the country.

White already sounds like a head coach in front of media. Operates like one, too. But the way he shies away from the spotlight and won’t sing the praises of his unit is his recipe for creating a defense that will never coast.

Now is not the time to pat yourself on the back.

“Right now, we’re the worst defense in the country, right?” White said.

It’s all about the weekly process for White. And the process never changed. Tuesdays are physical days for the team. And they need to be, especially with Northern Iowa coming to Lincoln with a rushing offense that’s averaged 298.5 rushing yards per game.

The Panthers (2-0) will enter the game ranked No. 21 in the FCS coach’s poll.

“We got an opponent coming in here who rushes for 250-plus yards a game, and has some great backs,” White said. “So all that stuff will go for not if you don’t prepare the right way. And again, approach it as you got a team coming in here who will beat you if you don’t handle business. So it’s just Tuesday.”

White thinks Northern Iowa will be a good test for the defense and prepare them for the physicality it will see the following Friday in the Big Ten opener against Illinois.

Northern Iowa’s top two running backs bring a punch in the run game. The leading rusher is Tye Edwards, who stands 6-4 and 230 pounds. Edwards has rushed for 310 yards, 10.7 yards per carry and two touchdowns. The second back is Amauri Pesek-Hickson, an Omaha native who’s 6-foot and 225 pounds. Pesek-Hickson has rushed for 191 yards, 6.2 yards per carry and two scores.

“I respect the hell out of the running backs,” White said. “They might be the best running backs that we’ve seen to date. So there’s no playing around.”

White said Northern Iowa’s running backs remind him of Illinois’ top rusher, Kaden Feagin, a 6-3, 250-pounder.

As of right now, Nebraska inside linebacker Mikai Gbayor is suspended for the first half of the Northern Iowa game because of his targeting penalty in the second half of the Colorado game.

The 6-foot-2, 230-pound Gbayor has enjoyed a great start to the season and leads the defense in tackles (11) and has the second-most tackles for loss (2.5).

On Monday, Rhule said the program is appealing the suspension because it doesn’t think Gbayor’s hit on quarterback Shedeur Sanders warranted a targeting. There’s been no response to White’s knowledge, so let the competition begin for Gbayor’s first-half reps between Syracuse transfer Stefon Thompson and true freshman Vincent Shavers.

“They’re going back and forth. They’re both playing special teams. They’re both battling it out right now,” White said. “I truly don’t know who it is. Stef is a veteran guy who’s been there and done that. Now he just needs to put it on the grass and perform. And then Shavers, he’s just an electric freshman. And the more he does, the more snaps he has under his belt, the slower the game is going to get. And then it’s going to be something when the game slows down for him because he’s an electric player. Big, big-time playmaker. So it’s good to have the competition between those guys and see what happens.”

White heard Rhule say Nebraska’s third phase of the game was “the worst special teams performance I’ve had in a long time.” That stung for White, because if you look at who’s on the field for most of the special teams, many are defensive starters.

“That bugs the hell out of me that that’s happened,” White said. “So the competition for everything is really the focus this week. Everybody executing. You had starters out there who are defensive starters not executing the way they could.”

White said Ed Foley wants an open competition this week on special teams.

As he always is, White was complimentary of both defensive line coach Terrance Knighton and defensive backs coach John Butler for their suggestions going into the Colorado game.

“Coach Butler coming over here and having the experience and the knowledge. You see from this game his hands on the coverage aspect,” White said. “You see his plan out there, and mixing it in with with T-Knight and what he’s able to do and get done. The first couple sacks came from a front T-Knight saw and wanted to put in. So we did it, practice repped it and got a couple sacks from it.”

White noted that some of the coverages Nebraska was playing against Shedeur Sanders made him hesitate. Linebackers coach Rob Dvoracek made sure Sanders wouldn’t have an easy slant to Travis Hunter from a stacked alignment out wide on a play that resulted in a pick-six for Tommi Hill:

“The little nuances, where he (Sanders) wanted to throw the ball to the two and John took away the two, and then the two started rolling back inside and John had the awareness to roll back inside with him and made sure go to the one,” White said. “And Tommy had sat on the route with the wide receiver and then he ate it up. I mean, all three levels, the coaches working together.”

>> CONSIDER AN ALL-ACCESS SUBSCRIPTION for less than $2/week to unlock all of our premium articles and sound off on the hot topics on our INSIDER’S BOARD

>> Follow us on Twitter (@NebraskaRivals) and Instagram (@nebraskarivals)

>> Subscribe for FREE to the Inside Nebraska YouTube channel to get even more daily content on all things Nebraska